The 9th U.S President " William Henry Harrison" , President of The United States

William Henry Harrison: Give him a barrel of hard cider and assign it a pension of two thousand a year, and my word for it," a democratic newspaper scoffed sarcastically, "... he will sit beside a campfire and study moral philosophy". The "Whigs," taking advantage of this malpaso, in 1840 presented its candidate William Henry Harrison as a simple frontier Indian fighter, living in a log cabin and drinking cider, in sharp contrast with Van Buren "drinker of champagne" aristocratic . Harrison was in itself an example of the planter aristocracy of Virginia. He was born in Berkeley in 1773. He studied classics and history at Hampden-Sydney College, then he began to study medicine in Richmond. Suddenly, that same year, 1791, Harrison switched interests. He obtained a commission as "ensign" in the First Infantry of the Regular Army, and headed northwest, where he spent much of his life. In the campaign against the Indians, Harrison served as Assistant Field General "Mad Anthony" Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, which opened most of Ohio to colonize the area. After resigning from the army in 1798, he became Secretary of the Northwest Territory, was its first delegate to Congress, and helped obtain legislation dividing the territory in the Northwest and Indiana Territories. In 1801 governor of the Indiana Territory was, serving for 12 years.

His primary task as governor was to obtain title to Indian lands so settlers could move into the forest. When the Indians retaliated, Harrison was responsible for defending the positions. The threat against settlers became serious in 1809. An eloquent and energetic Indian chief, Tecumseh, with his religious brother, the Prophet, she began to strengthen an Indian confederation to prevent further encroachment. In 1811 Harrison received permission to attack the confederacy. While Tecumseh was away seeking more allies, Harrison led about a thousand men to the village of the prophet. Suddenly, before dawn on Nov. 7, the Indians attacked their camp in the Tippecanoe River. After fighting hard, Harrison repelled, but had between 190 dead and wounded. The Battle of Tippecanoe, upon which Harrison's fame rested, stopped the confederation of Tecumseh but could not diminish Indian attacks. Pimavera for 1812, the Indians again terrorizing the frontier. War in 1812 Harrison won more military laurels when he was given command of the Army in the Northwest with the rank of Brigadier General. In the Battle of the Thames, north of Lake Erie, on October 5, 1813, he defeated the combined British and Indian forces, and killed Tecumseh. The Indians fled, and never more offered serious resistance in what was then called the Northwest.

After all this Harrison returned to civilian life; the Whigs, in need of a national hero, nominated him for president in 1840. He won by a majority of less than 150,000, but swept the Electoral College, 234 to 60. When he arrived in Washington in February 1841, Harrison left Daniel Webster edit his Inaugural Address, adorned with classical allusions. Webster gained some corrections, boasting in a cheerful way he had killed 17 Roman proconsuls, all of them. "Webster had reason to be satisfied, because while Harrison was nationalistic in his outlook, he emphasized in his Inaugural that he would obedient to the will of the people as expressed through congress but before he had been in office a month caught a cold that turned into pneumonia on April 4, 1841, he died -.. the first president to die in office - and with him died the Whig program.